When Shen says, “Balance must be restored.” I don’t think he means that the kid must die. Yes, that’s one way to restore balance but he kind of implies multiple solutions to this problem. I think he was trying to teach Akali to resolve things without conflict.
9:10 Shen does only have two blades, the one that floats is the spiritual manifestation of the second blade. Which has both a spiritual form and physical form. In game when Shen presses q you can see that he pulls the spiritual blade back to him and switches from using the steel blade to the spirit blade. They look identical because its the same blade.
The thing above the guardian might not be power flowing into it or anything like that it might be the ghost/lingering afterimage of the tree that was on it's head that was just cut down
Though I wonder if someone was missing an arm or something like that it would also show up in the spirit world? Maybe it goes away when the person accepts the loss of the arm or something like that? Or maybe guardians are especially linked with their trees or something like that or as mentioned it might also be the land empowering the guardian
And the red link is just a way of visually saying that the Guardian has the kid on deathlock, as a hostile. And when it turns green, the Guardian accepts the kid as a 'friendly' or ally, and override its previous protocol to kill him. As simple as that, no life and death mumbo jumbo.
Now Im wondering if the Guardian is hell bent on hunting just the one(s) who cut its tree. I mean what if the tree was cut by more than1 person? Do they all glow red? If so, Noxians can literally send a pack of slaveworkers and let them get targeted while the others bring the Guardian down or even drive those Guardians into the Ionian settlement. It literally ignores Akali even though she did made an attempt on its life.
Hey Necrit, Shen main here so everything I say is 100% canon. From a gameplay stand point, Shen’s spirit blade is both physical and spiritual, but is only empowered when both unite (he uses Q). This leads me to believe the the blade in lore exists in both planes. I also means the spirit blade on his back is inactive until the unite in the same position. I believe that it is not too far of a stretch to consider this but it’s my interpretation.
Yea, thats a cool observation. And i have so many questions. After shen uses spirit refuge on akali, he teleported near akali. He didn't use stand united or shadow dash. Maybe he is mobile than what we have in the game. There once was a story that shen suddenly appeared in the capital of noxus. The reason why I told u that is because, for the first time we knew shen was the one who infiltrating the noxian camps in Ionia from the zed comic. He also might be connected to certain characters in noxus like, swain and LeBlanc. And the last question, is shen connected to zoe? She is called aspect of twilight right?
@@kiranraveendran2437 i think its stand united he is using. whne shen is ulting in game he makes some special moves whit his hands and it looks like he does it there too (hard to tell)
winterx kiran So, Shen is much more mobile than he is in game. This is shown is the Zed Comic. He doesn’t use stand united in the story, rather, Shen can travel through the spirit realm in the blink of an eye similarly to Zed’s shadow dash. Secondly, Shen appeared in the capital of Noxus to combat Mord (I believe it was Mord, if not, a great threat) and this was not during the invasion. That combat happened after he became the eye of Twilight. Finally, Shen and Zoe are not linked to my knowledge. Zoe is called the Aspect of Twilight because of the Targonian Ascendant, but the Eye of Twilight is just the title of the Leader of the Kinkou.
Jonatan Jensen the slight hand movement was just to use spirits refuge (the safety dome) as well as to reposition his spirit blade’s position. Shen extends his hand when he does this in game
@@private5018 It could be. The lore of K/DA does mention how the people don't know the crystal tails Ahri has and the parasites on Kai'Sa are actually real and not special effects.
What if it's not exactly that the guardian is being empowered by above, but is more leaking magic. Almost like an exhaust pipe spews the remnants of using gasoline as fuel, this guardian was activated by the blood of a guardian tree. Mayhaps it is literally like an exhaust pipe from using that magic as fuel?
About the spirit realm looing like KDA: As the music video switches from normal vision to spirit realm vision we can see that Evelyn is also changing appearance. We can see her physical form and her spirit form (kinda), since she is a demon. Thats one of the best references i have seen in a while.
I love shen, in his solo stories he is depicted to be extremely strong. Love the solo story when he single handedly stops an invasion from the spirit world and saves Noxus.
He might be the strongest of all becoming second to mordekaiser. Actually he saves Ionia. And I think he might be connected to the demons in the game like evelyn and fiddle. And he might have some connections to LeBlanc and swain as well.
@Plague Doctor Well top 1 would be Aurelion Sol right? Then the Celestials/Aspects like Zoe and Pantheon. After them would be the Demons. Then Manipulators like Morde, Ekko, and then Shen?
@Plague Doctor i have to disagree. Pantheon? Really? If he were still an aspect maybe, but then again i'd say all aspects are more or less equal in strenght. But Pantheon how he is right now is Atreus, more human than Aspect. He's not even close to being in the top 5, i wouldn't even put him in the top 10. Also, i wouldn't put Aurelion on 1. He may have "created" Runeterra, but not willingly or to his knowledge. He found out years later and just because he's big doesn't mean he's more powerful than other beings. It's hard to rate the Champions of LoL on power because from most of them we don't know their real power. Take Karma for example: In game all she does is shield a bit and do some dmg, but in lore she's describes as one of the most powerful beings in Ionia, if not the most powerful being. Or the demigods of Freljord. We don't know their real power in lore because Ornn doesn't do much in lore and Anivia and Voli are outdated. Granted, Voli gets his rework soon, but if we can tell his real strength from that is questionable. Rating them on strength alone is like searching for lore on Gragas: There's too little to get a big picture.
@Plague Doctor Again, Pantheon right now is Atreus, not the Aspect of War. The aspect is dead, killed by Aatrox. The god is dead. But i can see that there is no point in talking to you. You could be hit in the face with facts by Riot themselfes and still would believe that it's easy to rate the powers of characters WE DONT KNOW THE REAL POWER OF.
KDA universe theory: What if the neon parts of the music video were them actually in the spirit realm. It would be supported by Evelyn being seen as a more demonic looking shadow in the neon parts. So spirit realms existence in the KDA universe confirmed?
what is shen carries 2 physical blades on his back, and 1 spirit blade with him via the spirit realm? this spitir blade is then the one that is not on his back.
My though is that the spirit blade is theblade on his back, but what's on his back is just the physical form of it. Since it's a spirit weapon, though it stays wrapped up on his back (the shot near the end of Shen's back the sword looks very close to the spirit sword but is completely wrapped in cloth) but the spirit of the blade can go wherever shen needs it to.
@@cztompy i have the same thought but maybe it is the spirit of the blade itself. so he does weild two weapons its just one is the spirit blade with both its physical form and spiritual form, it would make sense that maybe the link isnt connected to shen but instead is connected to the blade.
Just wanted to say thank you for all the time and work you put into these cinematic explanations, especially as you wanted to get them out in a relevant timely manner!
actually, I thought the "balance" shen was talking about was the concept of karma. The green on the seeds represent a good karma, and the red on the guardian was attracted by the bad karma of the kid.
Necrit, I think you went too quick to launch these videos, many of your points seems a little too rushed and strange. Here some of the things i think would be more probable to explain some of your points. 1 - The kid is dressed in Ionian form even being an outsider because he is a settler, Noxus doesn't want to burn Ionia, they want to colonize it but their campaign failed but they still have people there so when people stay for some time in a place, plus some reasons that would be too much to point, they tend to adopt the custom of the natives because it makes life easier, clothing being one of the most common. 2 - The guardian tree isn't this system of chance where a person might cut them and awake a stone golem, they are more probably control valves of spirit energy, they exist to purify and transform energy, they are called guardian trees because this function of them is essential and akin to protection. 3 - The light on top of the golem isn't coming from above unto it, it is coming from it, it is a leak without the guardian tree the energy inside the golem is going out. 4 - About Shen third sword, I may be wrong but i think that one was just a spell and a projection of his spirit sword, during the Zed comic we see Zed kill a master that had a magical spear, the spear could create many copies of itself but when its owner died it revert to being only one, Shen sword may not be able to create many copies but it can make at least one and imbues it with its barrier abilities.
yeah, it looks very similar to the sword on his back, so maybe he uses its "magic" outside spirit realm in this form. like in game he uses this form not to damage enemies but to protect himself or to weaken them (i guess their spirits or something)
I know this video is a month old, but I’m pretty sure that the third blade, is an astral projection of the big blade in Shen’s back. At least in-game, the floating blade is commented through a string of light to the blade in Shen’s back. And both of them glow the same color.
Maybe the extreme green colour was already there, all the time, before the kid cut the tree, maybe that's why it turned red when the tree "died", and finally when the kid and Akali planted the new tree, that original green returned, and so did balance
After you mentioned the glowing hilt of Shen's swords, I noticed at 12:01 that they glow red, indicating death. I just thought that was a cool little detail from the artists!
Could the reason that Akalis hair is glowing with some sort of magic be because of the strange design in her hair cut on the back? Even if its something minor like a weak charm or something like that it would still resonate?
Necrit, when Fiddlesticks recalls, there is a symbol that pops up around him, maybe that could help you with the demonology theory Please like so he sees this
I think that the spiritual blade works in this way : since in-game it floats and when he uses the Q the spiritual blade merge with the normal blade that you are talking about, probably the spiritual blade its like a ghost. He can either use it as a ghost to create shields and teleport it, or use it in an attack by merging it with the normal blade. And of course, i suppose that when he doesnt have to teleport it and he just have to carry it around, he may maintain it merged with the blade. That explains the story.
Shen didnt want to see the kid died. He gave Akali spirit vision to show her the seed and what is needed to be done. He knew how to save the kid but wanted to test Akali
the fact that there are 4 people all saying first baffles me. like you can just go to the newest comments and scroll to the bottom and see who is first lol. Also whyyyyyy do people say first anyway? do they get a secret reward or something
The smaller blade behind his (out of his view) right shoulder is the Steel blade used to hurt the normal realm, while the bigger blade behind his left shoulder is the Spirit blade, u can see in game how when u use q he draws the bigger blade and the blade spirit, the thing floating in the air, gets into the spirit blade. Into/around/however u want to describe the process where its like a shdow around the physical blade.
im not sure if Riot is putting irl references but the monkey is a symbol of life and longevity in China (Journey to the West, Sun Wukong, which is also who Wukong is based off on) and outside of that water is seen as a symbol of life in itself it might be just a specific talisman Akali use to release water, like how another talisman of hers in game releases fire in her recall animation also a quick google search told me that the monkey zodiac is connected with the earthly branch and something called "shen" so might be a thing 👀
The reasoning for Akalis hair lighting up is reference to whitches and how their hair and how they believed that hair held their power it's a Strech burn who knows
7:40 maybe the guardian isn't powered from above but it is the blood of the tree that is leaking sprit stuff, which is why only is at circle where the blood was
@@canadiangoose1370 *Passive:* you deal +500 damage on-hit to Brambleback. *Q:* swing your axe in a cone in front of you, applying on-hit effects. *W:* collect enemies you take town as Branches, 10 Branches for Champs and 5 for Large Monsters. active: toss up to 10 Branches in a line, dealing damage and slowing per Branch. *E:* chop down your target at melee range, dealing %max health damage and bonus damage under 40%health. under 20%health, deals 50%True damage. grants a Branch on use. *R:* summon your Alpaca-Goat with its chariot after 1s, granting you massive movement speed and a shield. if the shield breaks, time runs out or you recast, hit all nearby enemies with ALL your Branches stored.
shen has "3 swords" in game too when you use twilight assault(Q) he pulls out the second sword on his back instead of the dagger to attack 3 times, and its glowing so i think the floating spirt sword is linked to the big sword on his back,
@Necrit I think the power above that empowerd the guardian was the tree that kid cuted down the blood filled the seal and unlocked the power sleeping in the guardian and the blood was sacrifice for that power to be unleashed and it wasn't coming down it was coming out of the guardian (from him) thats why at the end it didnt came out anymore bcs the ritual was finished and didnt need it anymore and it just goes back at its pervious place
Akalis hair glowimg could be a neat treat. For a long time and across many cultures hair was believed to have inherent magical property and seeing Akalis hair glow reminded me of that. Rapunzel, Vodoo magic and many more things relate hair with importance. That's why soldiers would get a lock of hair from their wife/loved one, when they went to the battlefield (because a part of that person would always be with them).
shen's spirit blade on his back is the phisical part of the actual spirit blade, it's covered in cloth and in it self is a blunt stick, the actual spiritual part is the floating one. So when he uses twilight assault, what he's actualy doing is recalling the floating spiritual balde to the blunt blade (the conduit). That's why he apears to have 3 swords: the steel saber, the true spiritual blade and it's conduit to handle the spiritual blade.
Another interesting detail is that while they are in the spirit realm, each character glows at different amounts, which I assume indicates their connectivity to the magic and thus their power level. For example, in 7:09, while Akali has a little blue glow on her hands , Shen's entire visible body has turned blue. Furthermore, in 7:21, we can see that the kid has no glow, which means that he has no magic.
The right sword on Shen back and the sword he lay around link together. In game, when Shen use empower q, he use his right sword. His aa use his left sword. So, the spirit sword itself have a sprit form and a physical form.
I don't think Shen wanted the kid to die, I think he wanted Akali to understand that balance has to be mantained and that it doesn't need to be as simples as if you kill something u have to die, there are other ways to restore balance and I think that is what Shen does, he probbably wanted her to see the seeds and see that she could restore the balance that way
About the seal that akali pulls out to make water, for the people that don't know, she pulls out a similar seal in that actual game of Lol in her back animation
The card akali uses to help planting tree (one with monkey) and pattern on top side of it, looked kinda simmilar to pattern of fear explaining covered in one of your previous videos.
I think the glowing above is coming out of the golem, the magic powering it come from the "blood" of the tree. the magic of the blood could just be so powerfull it create a sort of current in the magic stream (like heating air for example).
From game itself I can tell this: 1 blade is for physical realm, 2. Blade aswell but it can be infused by magic just like Shens Q in game and that floating one is simply spirit realm one.
in the game shen doesn't use his third floating blade its more like a totem to cast his shield rather than a weapon and when he auto attacks he uses his shorter curved steel sword but when he calls his totem blade to him his next three auto attacks are done with the longer straight edged spirit blade
I wonder if the guardian was not actually apart of nature, but a sort of sentry the long-forgotten race that lived once on Ionia, but once they died people believed it was apart of nature? just a little idea I had in the back of my head.
Shen's VA is still being used, for example recently in Legends of Runeterra, Persona 5, that one kids show on Disney Channel (Ladybug or something. The villan I mean). And his voice is still the same.
in-game I have noticed that when u use your Q the spirit blade empowers his bigger blade that he has on the back 10:05 the one to the right. It becomes like one when it´s empowered
About the runes on the guardian you can see a very similar shape on ryze right temple the near full moon with a line going down and a right hand flick (probably nothing but interesting that the shape is similer)
Maybe the spirit sword is still on his back because what you see hovering there is the spirit of the blade manifested which would be interesting to the lore if his spirit blade is not something you can just pick up and wield but must be bonded too, like anybody could carry it but only the eye of twilight can cast it?
So as a shen player i think one of his blades ( the longer straight one) is basically the physical version of that spirit blade as you only use it when you q( which is why you pull the spirit blade to you in order to use 3 enhanced autos which deal magic damag) besides that he uses the other blade so kinda like a handle.
as somebody who plays alot of shen i always interpreted it as the 3rd blue blade just being the spirit blades magical spirit part being brought into our world as in the spirit blade has to sides to it
I think that the reason the reason there ate 3 blades is that, the blade he carries on his back (that is not not the blade to kill things from the physical realm) is the physical manifestation of the spirit blade. Shen is a human therefore he exists on the physical realm, so he would need a physical blade to wield, that can take the power of the spirit sword and kill spirits. So, whenever he is protecting someone he doesn't need to wield the spirit blade therefore it appears as this massive thing floating in the air, while when he is fighting spirits, he passes the blades power onto a special blade (the one on his back) to wield. Would also explained why when you dont press q the blade on his back doesn't shine.
